Ida
by Diamondinsanity
Summary: Will finds a tape he wasn't supposed to see quite yet.


WARNINGS: None. Although a character death is mentioned, there isn't actually any dying…  
SPOILERS: Not a one.  
DISCLAIMER: I don't even fully own my laptop yet. I definitely don't own any of these characters.

* * *

All he was supposed to do was charge a new gun Henry had designed before the staff meeting. Easy, right? At least that's what Will was sure Henry had been thinking before he gave Will the task. It didn't seem to matter how many times Will tried to tell him that trusting him alone with any of his equipment was a bad idea. Sure, he didn't blow up the lab when he'd been instructed to charge Molly, but that didn't mean he didn't manage to accidentally delete a dozen of Henry's files. It wasn't his fault that everything seemed to look the same to him.

So when he finished charging Henry's latest toy with some crazy name he couldn't remember, he wasn't surprised when Henry's entire screen flashed when he hit the button he thought was the eject button for the usb-cord or whatever it was that Henry had called it. He held his breath for a moment until everything seemed to go back to normal. And that was when the computer screen seemed to spazz again. He pressed his lips together and waited for the worst to happen.

The computer screen went black, making Will think that maybe he managed to crash Henry's hard drive. Again. But before he could come up with a story to tell him a voice suddenly started speaking from the blacked out screen.

"Is it even on?"

He frowned for a second, immediately recognizing Kate's voice.

"I can build a computer from scrap metal, Kate. I'm fully capable of working a camera."

His frown deepened when he recognized Henry's voice as well. What the hell was he watching? What did he accidentally hit because if he stumbled upon a sex tape he was going to have to burn his eyes out, after watching the entire tape, of course.

"You sure about that? Because I don't think you're doing that right."

"Well, if you let me use a real camera and not this old one we'd be fine."

"Hey! That's my dad's camera you're talking about here."

"Exactly. Not the most recent model. If you'd just let me use one of mine-"

"No. If we're going to do this, we're doing it by my terms."

"I don't even want to be doing this. It's creepy."

"Hank. Just deal with it. It's not like I can ask Will to do this."

"No. But you could do it yourself."

"Dude."

"Fine. Shushing." There was a pause followed by an "Oh."

"What?" There was the sound of something being unscrewed before suddenly Kate's face filled the screen. A laugh fell from her lips as she twirled something black between her fingertips. "Some genius you are." A grin lit up her face as she flashed the lens cap at the camera. "Isn't that the first thing you're supposed to do?"

"You're the one who wanted to go retro." The camera spun around and half of Henry's face filled the screen. "For the record? This? So not my idea."

"Shut it." The camera wobbled in different directions for a moment before settling on Kate again. She was perched on what Will assumed was one of Henry's work tables. Shaking her head slightly for a second, she pushed her hair back from her face before shooting a glare at Henry. "I can't do this if you're going to make fun of me." Her attention moved back to the camera and she closed her eyes for a second before beginning. "Will, if you're watching this, then I'm dead."

What. The. Hell. Will blinked in confusion at the screen as he attempted to figure out if this was some sort of prank or something. It had to be. Because Kate Freelander? Very much alive. He'd seen her that morning. When he accidentally walked in on her in the shower. So yeah. Definitely not dead.

"You can't start it out like that."

"Can it, Hank. I'll start it how I want to start it."

"Don't start it like that."

"Fine. How should I start it? Will, if you're watching this right now then something nasty got me and I'm haunting your fine ass right now."

There was a groan. "That's worse."

Kate rolled her eyes. "And this is still my video so butt out." She fixed her hair and started again. "Will, if you're watching this right now. Well… I don't have to spell it out for you, do I? I'm dead. Something got me faster than I could get it. I just hope I managed to take it down with me." She sighed and ran a hand over her forehead. "I know you're probably sitting there trying to figure out why the hell I'm doing this, and I don't know why either. Remember when you told me about your envelopes?"

"What envelopes?" Henry's voice echoed in the background.

"It got me thinking. If anything was to happen to me, I wouldn't be leaving anything behind and I couldn't stand that. So this is for you. And I promise. No chick flick moments here."

There was a snort in the background, which caused Kate's attention to flick back up to Henry. "You said you weren't going to make fun of me."

"I said no such thing."

Kate narrowed her eyes for a moment before hopping off the table and stalking towards the camera. The camera shot up towards the ceiling as the sounds of Kate punching Henry poured from the speakers. There was a gargled sound that Will assumed was Henry groaning before Kate resumed her place back on the table and the camera focused on her again.

"Now, where'd I stop?"

"You were about to confess your undying love to Will."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I was not."

"Yeah, you were." The camera focused on Henry's face again. "I love you even though I'm all corpsified and gross now."

"Hank!"

"But just remember that I will always love you from beyond the grave!"

"Something you wanna tell me?"

Henry smirked. "Me and Will have a special bond."

"Right." The camera shifted back to Kate. "Where was I?" She blinked for a moment as she worked on regaining her focus. "Oh, right. I'm dead. And whatever happened, however it happened, it wasn't your fault. I know you, alright? And I know whatever happened you're blaming yourself. So stop it."

She sighed. "Okay. Now the real point. I need you to do something for me. There's a box in my room with some of my dad's stuff in it. I need you to take it to my mom. You're the only person I trust to do it. And don't read into that, okay? Just do it." She glanced away from the camera for a moment. "And then I need you to get something from Hank for me. I need you to get the Steno tusks from him and give them to Thad."

"And I can't give them to him myself why?"

She rolled her eyes. "Because this isn't about you." She looked away from the camera again as though thinking about something.

"That it?"

She shook her head. "Give me a second."

There was silence for a couple of moments as Kate contemplated what she was going to say next. Finally a grin slid into her features. "Okay." She straightened up again, her whole focus on the camera. "Knock knock."

There was a groan in the background. "Really? That's how you're going to end it?"

"Shut up. This isn't your video."

"It should be."

Kate promptly ignored him and focused on the camera again. "Knock knock." There was a pause before Kate rolled her eyes again. "C'mon, Will. It's not entirely lame. I promise. You gotta do it."

Will was jolted out of his voyeuristic daze. He blinked at the screen, watching the video Kate wait for him. After a quick glance around to make sure that he was still alone in the lab, he replied with a tentative. "Who's there?"

A huge grin spread across Kate's face. "See? Was that so hard?" She smirked at him. "Ida."

An unbidden snort escaped from Will's lips, but he found himself asking despite himself, "Ida who?"

"Ida know why I love you like I do."

The screen went black again, and all Will could do was stare blankly at the screen. He couldn't seem to make heads or tails of the information that had just been thrown at him.

Kate… She'd… She said…

The words all jumbled around in his head and he couldn't seem to form a coherent thought about the whole thing. He was in shock mostly. After all, this was Kate: the girl who'd been shot more times than he could keep track of, the girl who kicked him down a flight of stairs, the girl who always seemed to outtalk him on the rare occasions he managed to get her alone for a post-mission therapy session. She didn't do girly or romantic gestures or anything that video he'd just watched had been, and yet… He couldn't believe it.

Kate Freelander loved him.

The information settled in the pit of his stomach, a strange warmness radiating through his body. It wasn't unwelcome information by any means. Of all the secrets that he'd ever stumbled upon, he was pretty sure he could handle Kate being in love with him. The problem, of course, was that he didn't know how to approach it. Mostly because he long since stopped attempting to add a label onto any Kate related thoughts any more. It was what it was. Still, that didn't stop him from imagining how it could play out.

He would push open the door to Helen's office, only to find that everyone else was sitting in their in the middle of the staff meeting he'd completely forgotten about.

"Will. There you are." Magnus would greet pleasantly. "We were just about to send out a search party for you."

He'd ignore Magnus and focus entirely on Kate. He'd stop in front of her, not saying a word and ignoring the fact that they had an audience.

"Uh, Will?" She'd shift uncomfortably in her chair and shoot a confused look over his shoulder, most likely over at Magnus.

He'd shake his head at her. "You're crazy. You know that, right?" Without giving Kate a chance to process what he'd said, he'd grab her face and kiss her hard.

"Oh. How lovely. Children in the throes of passion." Tesla would comment dryly. "Can I leave now?"

"Shush."

Will would pull away and stare down at Kate's startled expression. She'd blink confusedly for a moment before asking, "Am I missing something?"

"Knock knock."

She'd blink again. "I'm sorry what?" Confusion would wash over her features, the timing of everything throwing her off.

Will would just smirk at her. "Knock knock."

Henry would make an awkward coughing sound behind them. "Were you on my computer because that wasn't finished and-"

"Henry."

"Right. Shushing."

Kate wouldn't say anything instead she would look very much like she wanted to be anywhere but there.

"C'mon. I did it."

She'd look past him, shooting Henry a dirty look. "You weren't supposed to actually see that…"

"Kate."

A sigh would escape her lips. "Who's there?" She'd finally relent.

"Ida know why I love you." And with that he'd kiss her again before promptly leaving Magnus's office before anyone could process anything that had just occurred.

He'd be half-way out the door when Kate would shout out, "That's not how you tell a knock-knock joke!"

The office would be silent for a moment.

"Did Will just confess his love for Kate and then skip out on the staff meeting?"

Everyone would look at Henry.

"What? Just making sure…"

It was simple, probable, believable. It'd be easy; it'd be revenge for all the times Kate had managed to make him uncomfortable. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, to bare everything out there in front of her like that. There was a reason why he'd chosen psychology. It was a hell of a lot easier to evaluate other people's lives than his own. He had no problem envisioning the coulda woulda shouldas or encouraging other people to do the right thing. But when it came to his own life? Yeah, it wasn't going to happen like that.

Besides, obviously it wasn't something that Kate wanted him to see yet. She'd probably kick his ass if she knew that he'd seen it, but he's almost glad he's stumbled upon it sooner rather than later. It's worse than a snuff film. If he'd found it after she died, he's fairly certain it would have killed him. Just the pure honesty of the entire clip would have sent him over the edge. He could only imagine what it could have done to a future him: send him onto a suicide mission just to hear her voice again, or even worse it'd turn him into one of those guys who watched the same video over and over again to hold onto something they lost too soon.

So he doesn't say a word. He goes to the meeting like nothing just happened. He sits in his normal seat next to Kate and pretends not to notice how her body just instinctively moves closer to his when he rests his arm along the back of the couch. He ignores the knowing looks Magnus gives the both of them when she thinks he's not paying attention. He pretends he doesn't see the teasing hand gestures Henry makes at Kate (although he can't help but to smirk at Kate in amusement when she flips Henry off). He plays his part, and he tells himself it's because Kate wouldn't want him to know about the video even though he knows that's not the truth.

Every girl he's fallen for recently has either died or wound up being evil. He wasn't about to condemn Kate to that fate. The last thing he ever wanted was to have to see that video again. He didn't plan on losing Kate so he planned on never having her. Things were just easier that way. Besides, he figured he'd tell her that he knew about the video when he figured out the answer to her question. Why did she love him the way that she did?


End file.
